KNOXVILLE (AP) — Officials in a Tennessee city have instituted a policy to assure that University of Tennessee personnel don't sit in on any police interviews involving investigations of that school's student-athletes.
The move comes after Knoxville police testified during the rape trial of former Tennessee football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams that an athletic official was present for interviews with student-athlete witnesses. A jury acquitted Johnson and Williams last month .
Knoxville spokesman Eric Vreeland said Wednesday that neither Mayor Madeline Rogero nor Police Chief Eve Thomas knew about this before the trial. Thomas just took over as police chief in June.
Vreeland said Rogero and Thomas made University of Tennessee officials aware of the new policy at a meeting last week.